Road America MVP Weekend - a long windy write up

[KfabR8]

What a blast!

I'd never done a track day before and I can now tell you that it will not be my last.

I blame SteveR too. He put the bug in my ear about hitting the track at this event and I can't thank him enough for getting me to give it a shot. Also I have to thank him for the quart of oil. Steve, it was good to meet you.

The track is impressive. The last time I was there was in 1987 when I was involved with a Superbike team and I'd forgotten most of what I now remember about the place. I never got to take a lap, though, as I wasn't a racer.

Here's some excellent video from one of the Bimmer guys that I pitted around during the weekend. - really nice group of people.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Bc75VDt0I&"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Bc75VDt0I&[/ame]

A description of the track, as from leaving the pits, going into turn 1:

Fourth gear into Turn 1. It's a great sweeper to the right with a nice wide runoff area. Let the car drift out and into/through what they refer to as Turn 2. It's really more of a bump in the straight. Set up right underneath the middle of the Briggs & Stratton sign - it's diamond shaped and I'd put myself right under the tip of the diamond and aim for the little white barn that was outside the track past Turn 3. It put you in a great position for straight line braking into Turn 3.

Into Turn 3 is a slight downhill run. Initially I was braking way too early. I'm used to the dirt and downhill in the dirt = NO braking traction. Surprisingly here, the downhill sections load the front end really well and the braking forces increase massively as it flattens out into the corner. (same for Turn 5). By the last run on Sunday I was going in deep and having a great time.

Into the corner it's wait, wait, TURN and roll into the throttle. Let the car drift on out to the left, just kissing the edge of the run off strip after the rumble strip and shift into fourth. Keep it pinned and straight line the track as much as possible through Turn 4 - I believe it's the one under the Sargento Cheese truck billboard in the video above (not really sure what they consider a turn at RA - 2 & 4 are really just sort of slight changes, not really a corner), find fifth, keep it pinned and head into the beginning of Turn 5.

Turn 5 was just a rush. Somewhere in the mid 140's mph range, you come flying through a very slight kink to the left (I think this is Turn 4?), put the two left tires right up next to the grass, fight a buffeting helmet, and as it starts to drop away aim for the right side of the track get on the brakes HARD and find third gear as you trail brake into the corner. - and I cannot tell you how much I love these ceramic brakes. WOW.

Set the car up for the corner by turning in late and trail braking, getting the car to rotate just before/at the apex and then very smoothly push the right pedal down to the floor. Just barely put your left front on the very edge of the curbing, let the car drift out to the right, up into the rumble strips

If you're too abrupt on the throttle the ASR starts kicking in and things get jerky. It's worse with the TT setup than it would have been with a normally aspirated car, as when the ASR kicks in, the fuel/air charge gets dumped out the waste gates (as one of the instructors that rode in the car said "The seals behind us bark!") and the car jerks pretty viciously. It's definitely a chassis unloading experience.

It exits out of the corner into a slight up hill run - perfect third gear. Just as you go under the bridge there's a very slight dip, sort of in the shadow. Either brake before the dip or, after you get used to and start to trust the brakes, after the dip. I got hard on the brakes in the dip on Sunday and was impressed with just how badly it upset the chassis as I went into the corner. Thank goodness for the ESP!

Let off the brakes, stay wide right about 30' longer than you think you need to and then pretty much just throw the car into the tight turn 6. Just kiss the edge of the apex rumble strips, let the car drift on out to the right side of the track, find fourth and roll into the throttle and head towards the left side of the track to set up for Turn 7.

I had issues with the ASR trying to kick in out of this corner at first. I was keeping it in third and it was just the right power range from the engine to try to make it break the back end free. I finally started shifting to fourth right as I'd leave the corner and that issue went away. The torque the TT puts down is enough that I was able to carry a higher gear in a few corners and actually drop my lap times.

Feather off just a bit (this took a while to get used to - I kept braking when I didn't need to) make Turn 7 as wide as possible, feather back into the throttle and just touch the apex rumble strip on the right side. Let the car breath on out to the left side of the track as you exit. When you hit it just right it's a total rush. The car drifts all four wheels very predictably and the cornering force feels fantastic.

Into turn 8 is slightly down hill. This corner was my problem corner all weekend. I could never get a consistent run through it. I kept looking at the corner and not out at the bridge after the corner so I'd pinch it and loose my drive. The braking zone was one of the fun ones. You come out of Turn 7 wide left, so you cross back to the right side of the track. There were three white lines that came onto the track. I was able to wait until the second to last one and then just STOMP the brakes and find third. (the only time I had my ABS kick in was one time diving into this corner)

My problem, like I said, was looking at the corner as I was braking and not starting to look on up the track. When I did look farther down it was a smooth in/out. If not, I tended to try to pinch the corner and not let it drift on out to the rumble strips. This was another area that I needed to shift to fourth right out of the corner or the ASR/ESP would kick in and the seals would bark and the car would unsettle and I'd loose time.

Feed in throttle and head for the middle of the straight right under the bridge and enter the Carousel. What a sweet, fun corner. Long sweeper to the right.

You can run it wide - the track was clean enough, you can run it tight, you can run it right in the middle. I played with all three lines and each one had it's advantage. I liked the middle line with a very late apex. It slowly drops elevation and is slightly off camber. The car would settle in - you could feel the chassis set down into the springs and then feel the springs hit that point where things get stiff and everything suddenly feels stuck to the ground.

It's a very constant throttle until about two thirds through it and then you can start very slowly feeding in power. This makes the car four wheel drift just beautifully. Aim for the inside last section of red/white rumble strips and then let it drift on out to the left side of the track. By now it's full throttle and you're heading towards the dreaded Kink.

Shift to fifth about two thirds the way to The Kink (Turn 11), then as you hit marker 2 get on the brakes - not hard, but a good firm application and then let off and initiate the turn through The Kink and then get on the throttle fairly hard. Aim for the apex, just touch the rumble strips and let the car drift across the track out to the edge of the little run off strip. This was a sketchy section if you didn't do it right. I scared myself the first day a tad - not out of control type scare, just "Oh wow - that's a fast section and that was fast." Sunday I was very comfortable with what spooked me on Sat.

The section after The Kink (called 11A and 11B) sort of snaked to the left. Lots of good passing room and people were really good about waving others by in this area. It's fifth gear pinned and so much fun!

I don't know how fast I was going at the end of the straight before Canada Corner's (Turn 12) braking zone, but it had to be similar or slightly faster than into turn 5. The helmet buffeting didn't start until I was above 140 and I was getting it just before braking into Canada Corner. Downshift to third.

Set up on the left side, wait about twenty feet farther into the corner than you think you need to be and then just dog the car to the right. Let it drift out and into the edge of the rumbles on the left hang left, hang left, then late drift to the right and set up for Turn 13. Feather off a tad, head to the apex of 13, roll back into the throttle and let the car drift out right, right up to the white line and follow the straight white line right where it points you into Turn 14.

I was originally staying in third from the exit of Canada Corner through Turn 13. I'd bump off the rev limiter twice through this section and finally went on up to fourth. Wow, what a difference. No seals barking, no chassis unsettlement. Once again, the torque the TT setup puts out let me cheat, short shift and torque out of corners.

Turn 14 was another one that I had issues with until I had an instructor ride with me. He helped me finesse my entrance and once I got it figure out, my entry onto the front straight was fun. Drift it out wide, just touch the rumble strips and push the pedal to the floor. Earlier I'd shift into fourth just as I'd exit Turn 14. Once I figured to run through the section in fourth, I'd wait until just before the start/finish line and shift into 5th and race down the front straight. I had my speed warning set at 155 (the highest it will let you set it). On the second day it was flashing at me every time I had clear track before I'd get into the braking zone for Turn 1. I'm guessing I hit 157 or 158 one time, as it yelled at me a bit sooner than it had been. Usually it was just before I'd get on the binders and set up for Turn 1.

I didn't get any lap times on day one. Day two I saw a lot of 2:39 to 2:41.

During my last run on Sunday we had a guy in a bright yellow Z-06 show up in our group. THAT WAS FUN!!! My God that thing pulls out of the corners! I was blown away with just how well it put the power to the ground. You could see the back end squat a bit and the car would just leap away from me. Acceleration and down the track we were very equal and so was cornering. I'd eat him up in the braking zones.

We let each other pass a couple of times and neither one of us could shake or catch the other. It was pretty obvious we both got into a little bit of a race mode and it was so ****ed much fun I can't describe. I also managed to click off a 2:35.1 during our little ego puffing run.

I want to thank Desperado and Mothertrucker for sharing some of the track info that they have. I started out by dropping my tire pressures down to 28 psi cold. It put me at 36 right after getting off the track. I had issues with a push on Saturday. Sunday I dropped two more out of the front and it balanced out the car nicely.

One of the BMW guys got some good photos - I'll get them posted in this thread a bit later.

-------------------

I got to the track early Sat morning and going through tech, my helmet is deemed not viable. It's an "M" rating - one hit wonder: aka motorcycle helmet. They wanted an SA rating - means you can beat it a few more times.

SH*T!!, now what!?! I started hitting people up in the pits - do you have a spare helmet? - one guy did and it was an XL. I could put it on sideways. (yes, literally sideways - I tried). Fortunately I found a guy that had a shop in town - cool. 25 min later I had a new helmet. Got back just in time to miss the morning driver's meeting. I didn't hear the rules and that ended up biting me. - more on that later.

They sent the nervous novice class out third. Advanced went out first, intermediate second and then us. 25 minute sessions with 5 minutes between sessions. We were issues this little hang around your neck schedule and they stuck to it pretty well. A few accidents early in the day put it behind, but not badly.

They put us in groups of four behind an instructor driver for the first session. It was cold, slightly damp and there was some horridly loud car in front of me - I couldn't hear my car at all. We were supposed to follow the instructor for the first round - he'd gradually speed up and we were supposed to stay close to him as he went around the track. My group didn't speed up. The guy running in front of me waved me by - I wasn't being aggressive or intimidating him - he was just waving people by. I was uncomfortable in the car, with the helmet, on the track around people, slippery sections - not fun. Anyhow the guy waved me by and I went around went around him on a long sweeping corner called the Carousel. Not long after that I had some guy in a Benz come flying by me - I'd not waved him by.

So, we go in to the pits. I wander around, not sure what I've gotten myself in. This isn't fun, I'm intimidated, a tad scared.

I come back to my car and there's a bright yellow strip of duct tape across the windshield with bright red marker "COME SEE ME BEFORE THE NEXT SESSION!" and it was signed by the guy putting on the event (Mark).

Gee, what's this all about?

I go find Mark and he pretty much rips me a new one. *"What the Hell are you doing passing in the first session and not only that, but passing in a corner?! You are sitting out the next session!"

"The guy in front of me waved me by." was my response.

I got blasted "What part of the driver's meeting did you not understand? I said it three times: *There's no passing in the corners, only on the straights and no passing during the first session."

I was clueless on this - as I missed the driver's meeting, trying to find a new brain bucket. I told him about getting the helmet and showing up at the driver's meeting just as everyone was leaving. I told him that I was sorry and that it sure wasn't my intention of breaking any rules. I took my punishment and didn't complain about it one bit. I screwed up, I paid the price. - I have to give Mark credit. He was firm in his action and making his point but I think I may have caught him a little off guard though as I didn't try to argue or anything, just accepted what he said, apologized for it and went on about my rat killing. He gave me this look like "What, you're not going to complain about this?". Nah, no reason. Like I said, I screwed up.

Because I'd never done something like this I thought it wise to go in the novice group. I took advantage of having the ability to get an instructor ride with me. It wasn't until the second to last session on Saturday, but it did make a difference. I had about 90% of the line figured out but the complex after Canada Corner, the entry into Turn 3, out of Turn 6 and out of Turn 8 were a challenge. Three laps w/the instructor (Dave Hesse) and I was nailing things.

It also really surprised me to have the instructor tell me that there was no way I should have been in the group I was in. He said that he a) didn't believe me that I'd never done a track day at first and 2) that I should have been in the intermediate group. He actually took me out w/the intermediate group on Sunday and I had no issues keeping up with anyone. - this is not said with any sort of ego, but I was picking off people in the novice group like I was shooting fish in a barrel. (which in all honesty was a major ego boost - glad the helmet was slightly loose or it would have hurt! ) Honestly, I have many years of playing in a car. I understand chassis dynamics, setting up for corners and such. I just had to switch modes from dirt to street and it all came around for me.

It was a wonderful feeling to have an instructor (actually two different ones) say they were impressed with just how smooth I was, how much I took what they told me and applied it the next lap and that they loved having students that were sponges, to which he followed "You're a killer sponge!"

The last session of the day on Sat I let the instructor drive to get an idea of what I wanted to work on around the track on Sunday - mainly learning to trail brake a bit to get the chassis to rotate a little sooner. I rode with him for three laps and then we pulled over and I got out and let another one of them in. The two of them looked like giddy little school boys when they got out of the car. I never did catch the second guy's name, but he was just cool as he could be.

They invited me to dinner and we had a great time talking about our passions. They learned a bunch of stuff about playing in the dirt and I learned a lot about the road course guys.

Sunday I had one of the other instructors (Ken - who actually got snaked out of the car on Sat by Dave) get in with me - he just wanted to ride in the car and made no bones about it. - and I had no issue either, as he's the one that got me in the intermediate group. He too said that he was impressed with how smooth I was and how well I controlled the car.

It really was nice hearing this from two guys that teach people to drive. I honestly had no clue how I'd do and my first round on Saturday had me thinking that I'd made a mistake going to the track. Turns out that I may have a bit of a knack for this stuff!

Oh - I sat out Sunday morning's first run. That whole novice group fiasco I had the first day, along with being freezing (man I hate winter) made me decide to just slide along 'till the second round of practice. I managed to snake a ride with one of the instructors out with the Advanced group. This guy drives a Honda with R-compound tires. WOW!!! The tires never got up to operating temp and that little bone stock Honda just railed around the corners. They say he's been trying to break the track record in his class and is sneaking up on it quickly. I can see how.

[the_buch]

I really enjoyed this writeup ... thanks for sharing!!

[OEMplus.com]

Great writeup, thanks Kfab!!

[mngolfer]

Kfab,
I am very happy you enjoyed Road America. I like this track the best of the three I have driven. My fastest lap in my plain stock R-tronic R8 was 2:43. I am impressed with 2:35.1. You were flying...and stopping with ceramic brakes. Did you have track harness seat belts? On my next day at RA I will try shifting up to fourth in the places you mentioned.

Allen McNish holds the track record in an R15 of 1:49.1. It is on youtube for anyone interested in watching.

Where did you mount the camera and what kind of camera did you use? The video was great. My bumper mount was not nearly as good as your camera mount. I wish your video had less music so we could hear the engine, tubos kick-in and gear shifts.

[KfabR8]

One thing that I really had issues with was the stock belt. I'm so used to a five point that it was annoying. I'd put the seat back about 4", tug the belt tight across my lap, snug it up against my chest then give it a snap to lock it in place. I'd then move my seat forward to my normal driving spot. When I got it right, it hurt until I got onto the track. My shoulder's tender today...

Desperado had a cool little setup that I want to look into if I do this again, er, when I do it.

The video was from an M3 convertible that followed me - really nice group of guys from Chicago. I didn't take any at all.

I will have to pull the camera system out of my desert car the next time out - once again, Desperado had a cool setup that I'd like to add in. We're running the same camera system, he just had cooler toys to go with his.

[SteveR]

Great write-up Kfab. The Road America trip was a blast made even better by having a fellow R8Talker there. I can attest to Kfabs driving skill. He was very fast. It's too bad I didn't do two days like he did. By Sunday when I got there he was clearly ready to move up. I think he had one run with us neophytes then off he went to the intermediate group.

His car looked great, a carbon fiber showpiece. Now I know I need that carbon fiber radio surround and the mirrors, hopefully the GT pieces when they come out. I only wish I could have gotten a ride, but rules are rules I guess. Maybe next time.

I have a hard time picking the best shots, so forgive me for throwing a bunch up in case Kfab wants some of them. (PM me if you want any of the full files Richard).





First blistering Kfab pass. His car sounded glorious at about about 140mph by the start finish line. The Lotus, while surpisingly fast, is rapidly losing ground to his R8.

Next pass:







Little did I know when I got there that our assigned numbers (34 and 45) would be prophetic. Kfab had no problem turning in 2:35ish by day two. I started out over 3 minutes and got down to 2:45 by the end of the day. Now that I have had some time to reflect on my driving there are quite a few things I wish I had another day to work on.

Early on I tried to get my rev matching downshifts down. When I practice on the street, I apply the brake with half of my foot and roll the other half on the throttle for the blip. While it works fine on the street, I could not reliably place my foot just right to do that when approaching a turn at ~150mph. I think it was MotherTrucker that said earlier you can't really replicate racing downshifts on the street and now I see he was right. It helps a bit with the timing, but the footwork is all wrong and my car suffered crappy shifts almost all day. Worse yet, to avoid multiple downshifts I would bounce off the rev limiter in several areas when I should have taken another gear. On the last two runs I switched to centering my foot on the brake and rotating my heel for the blip. That doesn't work on the street because the brake is not depressed enough, but it worked perfectly at track speeds. By the end of the day I felt I had that down and was rewarded by much smoother and faster laps (by ~5-10 secs).

I also realized at the end of the day that I had forgotten to activate sport mode. I'm not sure how much that helps, but it felt much better once activated. While no one else knew, it still felt like a ghastly mistake to make in public.

I'm sure I had many more, but my main other failing was nerve. I simply never used all of the brakes and started my braking early in turns 1, 3, 5, and 12 in particular. The front straight is an amazing experience. You crest a significant hill at 100mph or so, then take 5th by the start/finish line. By the end of the straight you are doing 150mph+ and the wind buffeting makes it hard to see anything clearly. I backed off early every time.

Turns 3 and 5 are downhill braking sections with numerous deep black brake marks heading straight throught the turn and off track. By the time you reach the rather steep downhill braking zone for turn 5 you should be doing 140ish (I never looked). Fearing a disaster there I just rode the redline in 4th down the hill rather than take 5th as I should have. Hats off to Kfab for how well he moved through that section.

Finally, the back straight leading up to 12 is supposed to be a wide open run to 150+ again, gently turning the whole way. I don't think anyone hit the walls in there but there were plently that went off at the relatively sharp turn 12. I never quite got myself to go flat out through that whole straight.

I'd love to have another crack at it and have a chance to follow Kfab for a while, but I'm happy with what I learned and the condition of my car at the end of the day. (Two people wadded up their cars on Saturday, I saw several go off track, and there were many broken cars.)

The next day I stopped by Pegasus Racing in Milwaukee and talked to the guy there about the track (and picked up the handy looking SmartyCam). He called the track "boring". While I was initially surprised by the comment, I think I know what he means. The track is epic in many ways, but not as interesting as Infineon or even my local track, Gingerman Raceway. There are no really tricky lines to learn at RA except perhaps the Kink. At least that is what I gathered from the 3 instuctors I rode with. It's more about learning brake points, carrying speed through the corners, and handing the car at high speeds. Infineon has a little less speed but some tricky parts that are wonderfully rewarding to get right, especially the end of the downhill sweeping turn 6 as you feel the car sink into the track when you bury the throttle at the end, and the S-turns at 7-9. Gingerman even has some multi-apex corners with multiple possible lines that aren't intuitive, but very rewarding to get right.

In the end it was a great day everyone should have a chance to experience if you can.

[mngolfer]

It would have been great to meet you guys at this event. I think the seat belt issue is the first thing I would fix on the R8. Here is a video of my trip to RA in August (hot weather!!) In this video it seemed like I was always slowing down for someone and the passing zones were limited.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHXmBHzCqc&feature=related[/ame]
You can see other videos by just going to youtube and typing in 2010 RA don's R8. Video number five has almost no traffic. This one has two prototypes going by me like I was standing still. The first car was a radical and the second car was a F333SP Ferrari.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVOf06UCOVA&feature=related[/ame]

[SteveR]

It would have been great to meet you guys at this event. I think the seat belt issue is the first thing I would fix on the R8.

Funny you should mention that. I was just looking this up when I saw your post:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2jTKIgZFok"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2jTKIgZFok[/ame]

I'm not quite ready to put a bar and harness in, and may never be. Anyone try that device?

[KfabR8]

All that does is clamp the shoulder harness to the lap section, keeping the lap belt part of the restraint system tight.

What you need is to keep your hips back in the seat, which that thing in the video accomplishes, and to keep your shoulders and back snug against the seat back, which it won't do - at least not in the R8. I wish our seat belts would lock once you pulled them fully out - like a Vette's do.

What you want is to keep your back in the seat. This allows the seat bolsters to cradle you better; you don't have to hang on the wheel and shifter as hard to keep yourself steady and in the seat and you're able to spend more energy driving instead of hanging on.

Once you've been held in w/a five point, the regular seat belt's quite scary.

[swansailor]

All that does is clamp the shoulder harness to the lap section, keeping the lap belt part of the restraint system tight.

What you need is to keep your hips back in the seat, which that thing in the video accomplishes, and to keep your shoulders and back snug against the seat back, which it won't do - at least not in the R8. I wish our seat belts would lock once you pulled them fully out - like a Vette's do.

What you want is to keep your back in the seat. This allows the seat bolsters to cradle you better; you don't have to hang on the wheel and shifter as hard to keep yourself steady and in the seat and you're able to spend more energy driving instead of hanging on.

Once you've been held in w/a five point, the regular seat belt's quite scary.

I use the CG clamp (recommended by Desperado). To get the shoulder harness tight:

1) I slide the seat back a bit and recline it as far as I can.
2) I pull the lap part as tight as I can and lock it.
3) I pull sharply on the shoulder part of the belt to lock it.
4) I move the seat back to the upright position and slide it forward again until I can hardly breathe ...then it is just about tight enough.

This is not a perfect solution but it does help.

By the way ... great write up. I have now done five track weekends and am totally hooked. None of the tracks I have been on had a long enough straight to hit 150mph but I like the bendy bits the best anyway ...Mont Tremblant and Watkins Glen are a blast